The Divine Right

It's summer again and Stockholm roads are infested with enthusiastic cyclists.

Of course it's clean, green and healthy mode of transportation and I'm all for it; but that doesn't necessarily mean that bikers are beyond traffic rules though, does it?

As soon as people ride on their bikes I think they feel uplifted to a higher moral grounds and traffic rules are only for mere mortals!

It goes absolutely bizarre at the traffic lights; when it's green for pedestrians the cyclists go, when it's green for cars then also they go! Which means they can cross the junctions at their free will.

All road users are equal, but cyclists are more equal than the others!

Apparently zero carbon vehicles are entitled to a default right of the way over those abominable gas guzzling cars. If it's not written explicitly in the traffic rule book then obviously it's the book's fault!

Though this explains the sneers I get from the haughty cyclists every time  I try to inch forward my car obeying the signals, I get completely baffled when I almost get pushed to the ditches by them while walking!

The same people who unleash their wrath to the walkers for being too slow, ride on the main roads at 15 km per hour, totally oblivious to the trail of cars forced to crawl behind them.

And if they happen to ride one of those sleek, racing bikes, wearing full gears of the Olympic performers, then they'll ride on the main roads EVEN when the beautiful cycling tracks run just parallelly; to avoid the snail-pacing pedestrians.

Talk about grabbing the best of all worlds!

On one hand authorities in Sweden are pushing people more and more to use the bikes; free parking places at the station or community center are diminishing and are getting replaced by cycle stands.

And once again it's without much thought on practicality, demographic diversity and treacherous weather conditions. Everybody,of all age, physical ability...have to bike everywhere,to jobs, schools or fare grounds...in all weather,in rain, snow or gale.

One can only hope that the emission cut down achieved by this mass biking will be enough to offset other first world wasteful extravaganza like wrapping bananas in plastics, using ten paper napkins to eat a sausage or having the headlights always on... even during 22 hours of broad daylight!

It's probably just a matter of time before the fully geared bikers race on to the motorways to exercise their Divine Rights!

Let it go

When the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras called for a referendum to allow his people to have a say on the atrocious measures of austerity, I was truly mesmerized.

And I felt almost ecstatic when the Greek population gave an overwhelming OXI against all kinds of blackmailing and bullying from Brussels.

Thought Greece just gave the world a repeat course on democracy after 3000 years.

But how my ecstasy changed into agony in just one week! It beggars belief that, the defiant Mr. Tsipras would surrender so meekly just within days.

He first tried to broker a deal while remaining in Euro, which was fair enough. He thought the overwhelming mandate from his own people will give him an edge while negotiating.

But like many of us, he also couldn't fathom the utter worthlessness of his fellow Euro-zone leaders.

None of them has any leadership qualities or a strong popular base in their own countries. They're surviving on coalition trickery,talent voids in oppositions and political agnosticism of general public in their homelands.

The popularity and support of the masses like Mr. Tsipras got in that referendum, is something beyond their wildest dreams;They can't mobilize a mass even to save their lives.

They're just a bunch of mediocre bureaucrats, who at best can serve in the boardrooms of medium size companies. But true leaders of the people, with long term visions, they are absolutely not!

Moreover, they play in the hands of big banks and business houses who want to nip any sign of socialist movement at the bud.

Hence it's no wonder that Brussels played vindictive politics. They saved the Euro (for now) but broke the spirit of the Union.

When the European politicians got the Greek prime minister on their home turf of European parliament, they savaged him for his audacity of asking for a mandate from his own people.

Soon economics took a back seat, it became a "trust issue" or in other words, game of revenge and humiliation.

The debates reached such a low that Nigel Farage's speech seemed more sensible than most of them!

But shouldn't Mr. Tsipras have had a plan B? to leave the Euro?
What's so special about it anyway? When clearly it is failing for Greece?

True, most Greeks wanted to remain within Euro. But was it for no matter what? Event at the cost of their future, their sovereignty, their standard of life?

When the  Union itself has failed...when it proved to be nothing more than a club of bully boys...why still then this obsession with Euro?

Eurozone obviously professed Grexit synonymous to unimaginable abyss, but why would Syriza, of all people, have to buy into that?

Even when eminent economists like Paul Krugman or  Mark Weisbort argued along the opposite line and Argentina did make it happen in the past!

May be Tsipras together with his Syriza colleagues should have talked to people to ease out their fear of the uncertainty by presenting an alternative plan. It's already been proved that the Greeks trust them, even when the choice is difficult!

After all there is world beyond Euro. Very many countries not only exist but also thrive with growth far beyond Euro-zone.

It would be difficult, especially the initial months, but definitely a doable and viable solution, unlike the present joke of a deal!

Euro was probably worth fighting or negotiating for; but only up to a certain point.
Beyond which, like many other once precious things in life, you've to let it go and move on!

Not In X-Chromosome

Just read an article on how the inner "nesting" tendency is the biggest obstacle in women's true empowerment.

Written by a woman, known broadly as a feminist, surprisingly ranted on how women "happily" give up career to focus on family and kids. 

It lamented the fact that women PhD are actually "leaking pipe" of knowledge as a large number of them don't pursue their subjects after starting a family.

The author blamed this inner "femininity" for” the all-round failure of women in every sphere of life". 

Nothing could possibly be further from the truth.

Blaming women's “gross failure” in all sphere of life squarely on themselves is misogyny at its best.

Firstly, I doubt it's really a big failure; considering the fact that women only got any human rights worth speaking of, after the Second World War, they're not doing that badly in the fields of science, technology, politics or literature.

The fact that creativity didn't die within women during the millennia of patriarchal oppression just proves its fundamentality.

In a society most of the people are mediocre and they often find solace in little blisses of life...men and women alike...rather than mind numbing, physically draining hard work.

Only a handful of people driven by the passion for their work makes a remarkable scientist or poet. And I believe that fraction is same in both genders...if you discount effect of forceful oppression.

What she described...like women leaving their jobs midway...is a social problem. It can be handled socially with affordable child care, generous parental leave and more egalitarian division of domestic chores between men and women.

If we map the percentage of women giving up career in a given country against the socio-economic condition there, we’ll clearly see this.

If it were really in the X chromosome, as she apparently suggests...then this trend would have been universal everywhere.

But in Sweden and in other Scandinavian countries, we see the exact opposite; here the majority of women don't give up their career midway.

True most of them don't become Madam Curie or Agatha Christie, but then we don't see that many Heisenberg or Conan Doyle either!

As I said, it's the difference between genius and mediocre...not between men and women.

 Also, it's pretty naive to blame the women ONLY for their apparent affinity towards triviality and trinkets when the “boys’ toys” are a booming industry.

Some men spends as much time and energy on cars or x-box as some women do on curtains and cushions. Both are equally harmless but neither encourage career fulfilment or doing something for the greater mankind!

If this is what a feminist does to fellow women then who needs an MCP!